


Electric Sheep

by katamari



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Children, Alternate Universe - Space, Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, Based on an Owl City Song, Growing Up, IN SPACE!, M/M, Outer Space, Star Trek References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-19 06:42:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18132290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katamari/pseuds/katamari
Summary: Jooheon and Changkyun share the same dream of being in Starfleet as children. As they grow up and apart and everything changes, they realize that a few things always stay the same. Based on Owl City's Lucid Dream.





	Electric Sheep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mkhhhx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mkhhhx/gifts).



On Career Day, the gym at Seoul Metropolitan Elementary #37 transformed from a place of play to a realm of wonder. The half-inflated balls had been stored in the closet and tables crowded the basketball court, leaving no room to play between them. Each table had an impressive display- plants, robots, ancient artifacts – but even more appealing to the children was the massive amount of freebies to take home. Pens, notepads, koozies, and stress balls (which made each teacher mentally sigh – their desks would be filled with confiscated toys by the end of the day) were just a few of the offerings which would be demolished in mere minutes. 

The students paid little attention to the colored streamers carefully placed between the gym’s overhead lights, or the festive Career Day banner, which was hand-painted by Mr. Choi’s first graders. The balloons were similarly neglected, as was the cheerful music that resonated from the school choir, encouraging all of the students to go and follow their dreams off to wherever they may be.

No, there were more pressing matters, and when the signal was given, a herd of children stampeded through the aisles like miniature gazelles with very shrill voices. Their voices echoed and bounced off of the walls, adding to the cacophony which would make any innocent passerby think that some cartoon character or famous celebrity had deigned to present themselves at one of the smaller elementary schools in the city. 

Jooheon’s voice happily sang out with the crowds, the third grade student doing his best to keep up with the rush of his friends as they dashed through, grabbing fistfuls of free items. He blazed past the hydroponic displays and engineering booths with their androids on display (he made a mental note to go play with them later, if he had time), but his eyes were focused on the blue and gold logo that was suspended precariously from the ceiling. That was the one he saw in his dreams, the one that he doodled daily, and now finally, at eight years old, was allowed to actually be close to it.

“Starfleet,” he breathed. 

He started dashing towards the booth as fast as his legs could pump, only to stop short of his prized display when he felt as though he was being _watched_. His eyes darted back and forth, but all he saw were classmates – there was no rogue Romulan or Cardassian lurking between the folded-up bleachers. That would have been really cool, though – then, Jooheon could defeat him and become the youngest Starfleet cadet in the history of the world!

No, what his eyes caught instead was a flash of a small hand – human, about as big as his – coming from between the small gaps between the columns of bleachers. Just a kid, like him. Jooheon sighed and stomped towards them until whoever was between them became visible – another boy, his eyes wide as he tried to shrink further into the space. Wasn’t that –

“Hey, you’re in my class!” Jooheon realized. “You’re that new kid. What’re you doing back here?”

He didn’t answer, and Jooheon recalled that he didn’t really like to speak much.

“Changkyun, right?”

The shadowy figure nodded; Jooheon figured that was about as much of a response as he was going to get. “What are you doing back here? You’ll get in trouble if the teachers see you.”

“That’s okay.” His voice was barely audible. “I don’t care.” He seemed to grow even smaller when another group of chattering boys ran by, their arms weighted down with new trinkets.

Jooheon glanced back at the group, and when their voices faded, Changkyun seemed to emerge a tiny bit from his hiding place. “Hey, why don’t you come with me? I don’t wanna hang around those guys right now.” He remembered seeing that before in class—when it got too loud and crowded, the more the new kid seemed to shrink. “I just wanna go see all of the Starfleet stuff, it’s cool.”

Changkyun froze, but swallowed hard and emerged from the tiny space (thankfully without a teacher noticing that Changkyun had broken one of the gym rules). “…You like space stuff?” He asked, still timid.

“Yeah, it’s the best!” Jooheon slung his arm around the smaller boy’s shoulders and led him over to the booth, austere in decoration compared to the others – but they had two Starfleet lieutenants, in their red uniforms. 

“Wow…” Changkyun couldn’t stop himself from running up to the star charts on one of the terminal displays. “That’s Gamma Quadrant,” he identified breathlessly after a few moments. “And there’s Archer III! That’s right next to the Theogonia Cluster.”

“You sure know your stars!” One of the lieutenants, a young woman with her blonde hair pulled into a tight bun, smiled kindly at him. “These are the latest images we’ve received from the _Perseus_ , which is currently in the Gamma Quadrant. Have you thought about a career in stellar cartography?”

Changkyun seemed to shrink back into himself. He shoved his hands in the pockets of his faded jacket and stared down at the floor, suddenly unable to speak.

“He’s really good at it,” Jooheon suddenly piped up, “but he’s a little shy when he’s meeting new people. Is that okay?” He stepped in front of Changkyun and squared his shoulders. “You can be shy and be in stellar cartography?”

“Of course!” She smiled kindly at Changkyun, who seemed to untwist himself a tiny bit. “Starfleet welcomes anyone who has the passion and drive to study hard and explore the universe. You sound like you’d want to captain a ship. After all, captains always defend their crew.” 

Jooheon’s broad smile was all of the confirmation she needed that she was right. She plied the pair with a couple of the toy starship models and pretend rank insignias and watched them both run back into the crowd.

“Mission complete!” Jooheon sang out – and then led Changkyun to a quieter corner of the gym, behind the parent association booth. “Are you okay? You look a little sick.”

“I—I don’t like crowds much,” Changkyun admitted. “Or people staring at me. Or giant Tarolian spiders.”

His new friend let out a short bark of a laugh. “I don’t like those much, either. Mrs. Jung’s got one in her classroom. I had her last year.” He shuddered. “Minhyuk dared me to touch it once, it was gross!”

“You touched it?” Changkyun’s eyes went wide. “That’s so cool!”

Jooheon pointed across the room. “There’s one over there, at the zoo’s booth. Wanna go? And I’ll stay with you, promise,” he added quickly. Minhyuk was wrong – Changkyun wasn’t snobby at all, he was just shy. With that assurance, he didn’t have to coax Changkyun out of the corner again – not when he had someone to wander around with – and even better, someone who really liked space, just like him.

They later fell in with the class, arms loaded down with their toys and trinkets – but Changkyun’s rank insignia was proudly pinned onto his shirt and his model kit safely tucked close to his chest. Jooheon caught his eye and flashed a big grin – there was his rank, the four pips declaring him captain of the USS Seoul Metropolitan Elementary #37. It was a weighty role, but nothing that he couldn’t handle.

At least, that was what he thought until the school science fair, when Changkyun’s elaborately crafted model of the Kylata system was mysteriously smashed onto the floor, right before judging. Jooheon had tried to help frantically piece it back together, as best he could, but all that was left were shards of a few papier-mâché planets and a very small Changkyun, trying his hardest not to cry.

  


The first time that Jooheon saw Changkyun outside of school was after his Parrises Squares practice. His mom hated that he had fallen in love with the sport and fretted for hours about how dangerous it was, even after both his dad and the coach _promised_ that the kind for kids was perfectly safe. She had finally let him go after plenty of cajoling and whining, and he looked forward to practice, three days a week.

He had just adjusted the ion mallet case on his shoulder when he saw his classmate, ducking into an apartment building. On second glance, it was _his_ building.

 _We’ve lived in the same place for months? Weird…_ Despite his muscles being exhausted and screaming for mercy from practice, he sped up as quickly as he could, somehow managing to make it into the lobby before the elevator arrived.

“Changkyun!” He tried to shout, although it came out more as a sick-sounding gasp. His friend turned around, startled. His hand reached for the emergency button, but stopped when he saw that Jooheon was simply out of breath.

“What are you doing here?” Changkyun took a step back. 

“I live here,” Jooheon explained. “Sixth floor. Which one are you?”

“Eighth…I’ve never seen you in here.” Changkyun looked relieved. “I’m glad it’s you and not… _them_.” He shuddered.

“Them? Oh…” Jooheon faltered and then thought back to Changkyun’s project. “But they never figured out who did it, right?”

“It doesn’t matter. I know who did it.” The elevator beeped quietly and the pair stepped on, riding silently until it stopped at Jooheon’s floor.

Jooheon stepped out as soon as the doors opened, but then stuck his hand on the frame to keep them from closing. “Have you gone up to the roof yet?” After seeing him shake his head, he continued. “Meet me up there, eight sharp. I’m gonna show you something really cool.” He lifted his hand and let the doors close, not waiting for an answer.

His heart pounded in his ears while he ran down the hall – why did he just invite Changkyun to _his_ spot – and was he going to tease him after he found out? He never invited any of his friends up to the roof, not even his really close ones like Kihyun. It was his spot, and once he was old enough to use the elevator by himself he had sworn that he would never let anyone else know his secret. He didn’t really have to go, right? He could send a message to Changkyun that he wasn’t feeling well that day, maybe some kind of stomach virus or injury from practice.

But he didn’t send that message, and a few hours later he was dutifully trudging back into the elevator and then up the twisting set of stairs, where Changkyun waited by the entrance.

“You came?” Jooheon startled.  
“You invited me—right?” Changkyun hesitated. Was it really an invitation?

“I just didn’t think you’d show up,” Jooheon admitted and then pushed the door open. “Come on, you’ve got to come see!”

All of the negative thoughts vanished from Changkyun’s mind the second he followed Jooheon through the door and into the cool night air.

He had been transported to another world, a world with a complicated hydroponic jungle that twisted around the entire roof. Bioluminescent fish swum lazily within the pipes, adding a soothing purple glow to the night sky. The lights and traffic noises from several stories down was muted, and his sky was crammed with stars, so many that they fought for space, competing to be the brightest.

Jooheon’s thudding footsteps was the only thing that reminded Changkyun that he was still grounded in reality – but this was a reality that he wanted. He followed his friend to an empty patch of grass and flopped down – then winced, this was new grass that hadn’t quite covered up the concrete roof yet.

“I should have warned you,” Jooheon apologized. “But this is my secret spot. Don’t tell anyone at school, okay? Then they’ll all want to come up here.”

“I won’t…why tell me?” he added as an afterthought.

“Because you know what all of the stars are!”

That made Changkyun giggle. “But that’s easy!” He pointed up and saw Jooheon’s eyes follow his finger. “That’s Polaris. That one’s the easiest to find.” 

“I know that one,” his friend griped. “All Starfleet captains know that one.”

“But you’re not one yet,” Changkyun reminded. He pointed out a few more of his favorites, happily explaining the origin of their names and constellations. Jooheon was starting to get the feeling that Changkyun had _really_ been in space, even though he swore that he had lived in Gwangju until his family had moved to Seoul.

“I just like studying all of the charts,” he explained. “And I want to name my own someday.”  
Jooheon hesitated. “…In the Kylata system?”

Changkyun’s hand dropped back to the grass as he fell silent. He rolled over, studying the strangely glowing fish, swimming among the dewberry plants. Jooheon held his breath, anticipating him to get up and run away.

“…Yeah,” he answered quietly. “…It was Kang Jaehwa. The fifth-grader.”

Jooheon didn’t have to ask what _it_ was referring to. He balled his fists and stuck out his chest, as best he could while lying on his back. “Captains have to protect their crews. That’s what real Starfleet officers do.”

Changkyun didn’t say anything else, not until his communicator beeped with a reminder to head home for bed.

He didn’t say anything the next day, when Jooheon received recess detention for two whole weeks for punching Kang Jaehwa in the face. He did, however, sneak back into the classroom to keep Jooheon company – and the grin on his face was worth the risk of getting caught.

He was right. Starfleet officers protected each other.

  
  
  


As Im Changkyun grew older, there were many things that he realized he hated. Tarolian spiders were still high on the list, but they were joined by alarm clocks, biochemistry homework, Klingon Culinary Appreciation Day at school, and most importantly, Parrises Squares.

Changkyun had never been the most athletic of kids (and the fact that he had to wear the smallest size in junior high school uniforms proved it), so he had no interest in running up ramps and defending himself with an ion mallet. He had even less interest in supporting the school team, but dutifully found himself at every game, his nose stuck in a book until Jooheon was announced as a player. Then, he’d scream and cheer his heart out – and silently return to his book.

In junior high school, that was how rumors started.

That was how Changkyun discovered that the library was his best friend, with its massive selection of discs and tablets and actual books, the ones Changkyun preferred to hold over a sleek PADD. He would huddle himself in the corner and try not to listen to the whispers around him, even though they always somehow entered his ears.

“We’re going to the provincial championships,” he would hear. “Jooheon’s a great captain.” That was common enough.

“Seungmin’s in love with Jooheon – don’t tell him, she’d kill me!” This one was rarer, but always punctuated with giggles and thousands of promises never to tell.

“There’s someone _else_ in love with Jooheon.” 

“Oooo, is it Jiyoo? She’d have to fight Seungmin hard for him.”

“No, it’s…” 

Changkyun only had to turn back at the whispering girls to get them to abruptly change their conversation to schoolwork or other gossip.

He hated that stupid rumor, the one that was on his mind every time he took a seat in class. It was on his mind every time he opened his locker (and heard snickers about his poster of the Enterprise, carefully attached with magnets on the inside of the door – Starfleet was for babies.) He would simply hunker down, study, and avoid Jooheon’s gaze. It wasn’t worth it, not when Jooheon was the captain of the Parrises Squares team and the source of adoration for student at school.

Today, Changkyun could tell it would be particularly vicious. With the championships and exams coming up, he couldn’t quite tell what the looks directed at him would be – either fake sighs and squeals of romantic longing for ‘Captain Jooheon’ or thinly veiled threats to let a classmate cheat off of an exam.

That was the reason why he hurried down the hall and decided to forgo lunch in favor of hiding in the astrometrics lab. A project, he would lie to the other students in there – but they all knew. He had a chair in the corner of the lab, where he could tilt his head back and study the projected sky – today was a showing of the Alcor system. It wasn’t one he considered to be that beautiful or fascinating to look at, but it would do to help his mind drift back, to the cold spring just before school had started.

Despite the calendar saying March, Changkyun was still bundled in his heavy winter coat and scarf when he headed to the rooftop, just like he did every Friday night at eight. He was usually a few minutes early, but his mother had scolded him about not bundling up enough and kept him late. He knew Jooheon would be there and tease him about it, as usual. After all, that was just how they worked.

“Sorry, I –“ He stopped short when he realized that no one was on the roof. _Late as usual._ He hoped that Jooheon would make it in time, it was a perfect night to view Leo. Besides, they were going to start their second year of junior high school soon, and he knew with Jooheon’s practices and his own duties in the astronomy club that their time together would be scarce. Still, Friday night was their time, no matter what.

He fell onto the grass just as the door opened, and he heard Jooheon’s voice. “Wait until you see—“

 _You?_ Who had he brought up here? Changkyun slowly sat up to see two figures illuminated from the stairwell lights – Jooheon and a half-lit girl who Changkyun vaguely recognized as being part of the cheerleading squad.

“It’s secret, so don’t tell anyone, okay? I haven’t shown anyone this before.”

“No one else?” The girl replied, sounding astonished. “Why?”

“No one else has been important enough.” He heard a faint giggle and then silence – after a few moments Changkyun got up as quietly as he could and crept behind a few of the plants. They provided cover, but a perfect view – Jooheon was _kissing_ this girl.

Somehow, Changkyun made it downstairs without being noticed. He half-mumbled some excuse about Jooheon’s practice taking too long and slipped into his room. Finally, with music blasting, he could let himself let go.

Friday nights appeared to be canceled, forever.

  


His mind suddenly snapped back when a soft chime echoed through the lab, signaling the end of the lunch break. If he was lucky, he would time his entrance into class at the same time that the teacher deigned to enter. He kept his head down as he navigated blindly through the hallways. In a crowded hallway, full of chattering students…that wasn’t quite the way to go, especially not when he found himself colliding with the rest of the Parrises Squares team.

“You need to watch it!” That sounded a lot like Jaehyun, the massive right guard and all-around asshole. “You’re still on Earth, dumbfuck.”

“Sorry,” Changkyun muttered and darted around, trying to ignore the laughter behind him as he finally made it into the classroom and sank into his seat. The chime sounded again, and yet class didn’t start.

It was several minutes later when their teacher rushed in and slammed a button, lowering the giant holoscreen. Instead of starting their Korean lesson, the screen was instead turned to the local news channel, where an anchor tried to keep a stone composure as she read the prompter in front of her.

“We’ve received news that Starfleet is currently engaged in battle with the Borg, an alien entity intent on invading Earth. They are currently eight light years away in the Wolf system.” The camera switched to the scene. A ship that Changkyun had never seen before – a strange, floating cube, seemed to be heading directly towards a group of assembled Starfleet ships.

“There are currently forty ships ready to battle the Borg, and we’ve received word that the Enterprise, under the command of Captain Pi-I’m sorry, Captain Riker – will soon join on the attack.”

 _Riker?_ Jean-Luc Picard was a household name, what had happened? Changkyun didn’t recall seeing any sort of message about a change of command.

“In just a few moments, we will see—“ The anchor suddenly stopped when the cube-shaped Borg ship suddenly launched an attack powerful enough to blind the orbiting cameras. A sudden hush fell on the classroom – and when the camera re-engaged, all that was left of the forty ships were piles of debris. The anchor had stopped speaking.

Somehow, their teacher managed to turn off the screen and joined his students in dumbfounded stares.

_What was happening?_

“I’m so fucking happy that I gave up on all that Starfleet stuff,” he could hear Jooheon whisper. “You couldn’t pay me enough to go up there.”

Changkyun couldn’t remember much of class. He numbly joined the rest of his classmates as they filed out, in silent agreement that no learning would happen that afternoon.

It was plastered all over the news that evening about the miraculous victory when the Enterprise arrived, how the cube was destroyed and the kidnapped Picard rescued from such an evil species. There was too much noise for Changkyun, too much cheering and wondering if Earth should continue to be part of the Starfleet program. It was too dangerous, after all. People had died, over two hundred according to the rosters. 

“I’m just going to be a pro Parrises Squares player,” he would hear Jooheon boast, to the approval of his admirers. “Only stupid kids want to be in Starfleet, right?”

“You mean dumbfucks like Im Changkyun?” He’d hear someone else shout, and then hateful laughter would fill his ears, day after day.

“Just…babies, I guess,” Jooheon would mutter, but the crowd around him never heard it.

He didn’t know what hurt more – the jeers or the fact that Jooheon never stood up for him. But as Jooheon said, that was what a Starfleet officer would do – and he wasn’t interested in that anymore.

Changkyun viewed the stars alone on the rooftop, fighting tears and agonizing realities.

Jooheon wasn’t his friend.

He probably never was.

A chime sounded on his PADD – an invitation to visit Starfleet Academy and learn more about its admission process. Starfleet, the invitation boasted, could be the source of a lifelong career, full of adventure.

Changkyun read the message, over and over again, before pressing delete.

 

  
  
  


Even in high school, even as Jooheon grew and changed and evolved into his school’s ultimate ladies’ man, there were still some vestiges of childhood that he held onto as tightly as he could. While these were mostly his comic books (that he swore would be worth something someday), a tiny plastic model of a spaceship, its stickers faded and a few missing, remained on his bookcase, carefully camouflaged between two small plants. Although his Starfleet dreams had faded into a more promising reality – marine engineering really seemed the way to go – there was still a ghost of a little boy there, promising that he would become the best captain of a starship that the galaxy had ever seen, or ever will see.

That boy had been toughened by years of Parrises Squares, tournament after tournament won, and the realities of growing up. There was no time to pretend to play Starfleet with Changkyun, no more time to look at the stars unless he had a girl with him. After all, _everyone_ would talk if he was seen within two hundred meters of Changkyun, and none of it would be favorable to his old friend. His ex-friend? He couldn’t quite put a finger on it. As much as he hated to admit it, Jooheon missed that little boy.

Things were simpler, he thought as he stepped into his school. All he had to do was try his best, and no one expected anything else from him. For a moment, when he closed his eyes, he could still almost taste the humid night air from the long summer nights on the rooftop.

“There’s Draco!” Changkyun would squirm with excitement as he would point out Jooheon’s favorite constellation. Jooheon followed his finger upward and focused his eyes, silently mouthing out the names of the stars that created his dragon.

“So cool,” Jooheon marveled as he tried to wipe off his sweat with a sticky hand. It was a particularly hot summer, and the rooftop provided little relief. “You think that Draco could eat the rabbit in the moon?”

Changkyun turned to glance at the moon, rich and full with the faint outline of the infamous rabbit inside, pestle in hand as it ground its rice flour. “No way. That’s a special rabbit. Besides, Draco’s way too far away.”

“What if…” Jooheon started. He heard a shift in the grass as Changkyun turned to him. “What if Draco just spread his wings and flew, all the way across the sky and smack into the rabbit?”

Changkyun laughed. “But the rabbit’s secretly the Black Rabbit of Inle! Draco wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Jooheon groaned in defeat. “You read way too much _Watership Down_.”

“And you don’t read enough of it,” Changkyun retorted. “…We’re kinda like Fiver and Hazel. I’m Fiver, you’re Hazel. You’re the brave one, and I’m the runt.”

“But they both find their place.”

“Find your place.”

  


The words snapped Jooheon out of his memory, and the faint smile that had appeared on his face suddenly faded. He numbly found his seat and remained standing, waiting for class to start – and trying to ignore the fact that Changkyun was two rows in front of him. 

As class started, his PADD silently flashed a message. Jooheon tried not to look too conspicuous when he saw the sender’s name, but groaned inwardly – yet another person consoling him on his latest breakup. That one, with Seungmin, had been drawn out and messy, and he could still feel daggers being stared into him. 

He couldn’t help it – she had asked if he loved her, and he was truthful. He hadn’t really felt much of anything for a while now, and yet he still asked every girl he knew on a date. Like he was trying to prove something, he had heard, perhaps that he wasn’t afraid of commitment.

It was high school, Jooheon liked to argue. There was no need for that. 

Class passed by in a blur, Jooheon only half-listening to his instructor’s dry explanations of early transcendentals. He never did like calculus, anyway.

That afternoon, his class was pressed to stay after school – the annual Career Day had made its way in, and this time it had to be taken seriously. This career fair had far less balloons and no choral accompaniment, and the excitement that Jooheon had as a third grader had dulled into a listless acceptance that he would have to join the workforce soon enough. After glancing at the holomap, he forced himself to turn right, towards the marine engineering companies.  
His feet propelled him past those booths, continuing forward, all the way to the back of the gym. Out of habit, he turned and looked at the bleachers…  
…No Changkyun hiding there.

He suddenly stopped, face-to-face with the same logo that had been doodled on every page of his elementary school notebooks (and some of his high school ones, if he admitted it).

 _Starfleet_. Representatives in their uniforms cheerfully helped students fill out information requests for the academy, with reminders that the application period was about to open for the upcoming year.

He fell in line and could almost see the images of two small boys, beaming as they fastened their toy pips to their shirts and made plans to build their models at recess. He could almost hear his chatter and Changkyun’s short, shy responses.

When Jooheon finally stepped towards the tablet, the boy in the next line froze, his fingers clutching the stylus and staring over at Jooheon like he had seen a ghost.

 _You too?_ Changkyun’s eyes seemed to say.

Jooheon offered a tiny salute and bent over to fill out the form, intent on applying for the test that afternoon.

“Tonight,” he whispered as he passed by Changkyun. “Meet me there.” He hoped that Changkyun remembered just where _there_ was.

 

The rooftop was quiet and chilly; it did nothing to block the fall breezes from blowing through Jooheon’s bones. He could see Changkyun’s jacket through the twisted vines of the hydroponic strawberries, and he slowly picked his way through the garden to stand next to his old friend.

“Pegasus?” He asked quietly, pointing towards a constellation.

“You got it.” Changkyun’s voice sounded quiet and distant. “…Where were you, Jooheon?”

“Me? Letting the black rabbit of Inle attack my dreams.”

Changkyun snorted. “I didn’t know that the black rabbit was an asshole.”

“….I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to say to them, any of those times.”

The two fell silent for a long time, staring off into the distance for more constellations. The wind picked up, rustling through the vines before Changkyun spoke again.

“Guess you couldn’t punch them in the face this time around.” That elicited a short bark of a laugh from Jooheon, who smiled at that memory. “Not if you want to really join Starfleet.”

“I’m going if you’re going.” Although he wasn’t looking at Changkyun, Jooheon knew that a tiny smile was on his lips. “After all—“

“—Starfleet officers protect each other,” Changkyun finished.

“Let’s do it,” Jooheon said suddenly, pointing up to the constellations. “We’ll go all the way up in the air, past our galaxy and into all of the others, just like we said we would. That’s how it should be, you know?”

He blindly offered his hand, and Changkyun gripped it with a surprising firmness.

“You want to run – I’ll run with you,” Changkyun replied quietly.

“….You really do read too much _Watership Down_.”

Changkyun grinned and turned his head to look back at his friend. “And you read it even more if you recognized that.”

Jooheon met his gaze, something different in his eyes. They were still soft and playful, but somehow, he could see his beloved stars reflected in them. “How about…’the heart has its reasons, whereof reason knows nothing.’”

“ _A Wrinkle in Time._ What are you –“ Changkyun watched Jooheon’s face soften in the shadows, slowly understanding. “…So it was true?”

“That’s not a book,” Jooheon gently chided. “…Yeah. Maybe? I don’t know.”

It was Changkyun who made the first move, swallowing his fear to impulsively press his lips against his friend. Hormones, he would lie later. It was dark, maybe he could lie and say he had tried some Klingon bloodwine.

Or perhaps he wouldn’t have to lie, not when Jooheon’s arms tightened around him like he would never let go.

Perhaps he could bid farewell to the black rabbit who ate his dreams and embrace the real, the impossible.

Change was coming to Changkyun’s life again – and this wasn’t a plunge that he would have to take alone.

 

_Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. – Wuthering Heights_

**Author's Note:**

> I kiiiinda stuck with my plan on this, but I still have ideas on what happens after their time at the Academy! Thank you so much for this prompt - I had a blast writing it, and hope that you enjoyed reading it. :)


End file.
